The dominant features of the lunar surface are the old heavily cratered highlands and the younger basaltic maria, mostly filling the large impact basins (see Figs. 1 and 3). There is a general scarcity of tectonic features on the Moon, in great contrast to the dynamically active Earth.
What are the major features of the lunar surface?
The lunar surface is divided into light-colored heavily cratered highlands and smooth dark lowland maria which are most prominent on the near side. The highlands are saturated with large craters owing to their greater age in comparison to the maria and dominate the lunar far side and most of the near side.
What is the most common feature on the surface of the Moon?
The Moon’s surface is characterized by highlands and lowlands, mountains, and most notably, craters (bowl-shaped cavities of meteoric origin). These craters are often marked by secondary craters and by rays from ejecta — ejected matter from the meteor’s impact.
What is the lunar surface composed of?
The average composition of the lunar surface by weight is roughly 43% oxygen, 20% silicon, 19% magnesium, 10% iron, 3% calcium, 3% aluminum, 0.42% chromium, 0.18% titanium and 0.12% manganese. Orbiting spacecraft have found traces of water on the lunar surface that may have originated from deep underground.
What are the three main surface features of the Moon?
Other Features
While the craters, highlands and maria are the moon’s three main landforms, the moon’s surface has a number of other highly visible features.
What are the five kinds of lunar surface features?
A variety of features are evident on the lunar surface. These features include craters with and without rays (also see the “Impact Craters” activity on Page 61), crater chains, maria, rilles, and mountains.
Why does lunar surface have craters?
One reason the moon has craters because it gets hit by objects, small pieces of rocks that come from outer space. These are pieces of asteroids, comets that are flying around in the solar system. When they hit the surface, there’s an impact. The moon has no atmosphere, and so even a tiny rock will create a crater.
What are the two main types of rock on the lunar surface?
The two most common kinds are basalts and anorthosites. The lunar basalts, relatively rich in iron and many also in titanium, are found in the maria. In the highlands the rocks are largely anorthosites, which are relatively rich in aluminum, calcium, and silicon.
What is lunar surface of moon?
Surface materials
Lunar rocks are in large part made of the same common rock forming minerals as found on Earth, such as olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase feldspar (anorthosite). Plagioclase feldspar is mostly found in the lunar crust, whereas pyroxene and olivine are typically seen in the lunar mantle.
What are 3 surface features?
Surface Features
- When two plates collide, one may be forced under the other causing ocean trenches, volcanic islands, and mountain ranges.
- When two plates move away from each other, rifts occur.
- When two plates slide past each other, there are faults.
What are the features of a lunar crater?
Lunar craters generally have continuous hummocky ejecta near the rim crest, outside of which is a zone of radial or concentric ridges, which merge outward into string or loops of secondary craters, formed by material thrown out of the main crater.
What are the holes on the surface of moon called?
Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth’s Moon. The Moon’s surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated.
Why is lunar dust sticky?
Moon dust is constantly bathed in radiation from the sun, a bombardment that gives the material an electric charge. That charge, in turn, makes the dust extra sticky, almost like a sock that’s just come out of the drier.
Which type of rock is most common on the Moon?
The Moon’s surface is dominated by igneous rocks. The lunar highlands are formed of anorthosite, an igneous rock predominantly of calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar.
What is the lunar mantle made of?
The lunar mantle is believed to consist of olivine, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene. The composition of the mantle is similar to that of the Earth, but the moon may contain a higher percentage of iron. Scientists have samples of the lunar crust and take measurements of properties of the moon’s surface.
What are the 3 most abundant elements in rocks at the surface of the Moon?
The variation on the Moon is much less because the 3 major minerals in lunar rocks, plagioclase feldspar (usually anorthite), pyroxene, and olivine, all have about the same SiO2 concentration.
What color is lunar surface?
cold gray
Lunar Surface is a cold gray with a neutral green undertone. Depending on the light source or time of day, it may appear as a green-gray on the walls.
How bright is the lunar surface?
For example, the brightness of a full Moon is usually quoted at magnitude around –13, about 14 magnitudes or 400,000 times fainter than the Sun. (With a mean albedo, or reflectivity, of just 13%, the Moon is actually as dark as worn asphalt.)
How big is the lunar surface?
about 14.6 million square miles
The moon’s surface area is about 14.6 million square miles (38 million square km), which is less than the total surface area of the continent of Asia (17.2 million square miles or 44.5 million square km). Related: Does the moon rotate?
What are the main features of the Earth’s surface?
It has mountains, hills, plain and plateaus, river valleys, lakes, basins and rift valleys. Altitude and slope give rise to the different relief features. Plain, plateaus and mountains form the major relief features of continent.
What are the surface features?
Surface features, such as topographical or chemical cues, can affect cell behavior and morphogenesis. The present chapter provides the readers with notes on the influence of nanoscale and microscale topographic features in guiding cell orientation, interaction, organization, and assembly in myotubes.